Last night we split into two groups; the more senior one practising chum kiu and the junior one practising siu lim tau. We absolutely hammered chum kiu. Sifu pointed out loads of things I was doing wrong and also gave very useful applications of some of the moves in the form. I’ll detail those later.

This morning I spent a whole hour in the gym practising the corrections to my rendition of chum kiu. My routine was as follows:

• Do chum kiu a couple of times all the way through, paying attention to the corrections sifu pointed out.
• Review the first correction to the form on my list and do chum kiu up to that point. Then spend 10 minutes practising over and over just the faulty move.
• Move on to the next correction: review it and then perform chum kiu from the start to the faulty move. Then practise just the correction to the faulty move over and over for 10 minutes.
• Repeat this cycle until all faulty moves had been practised.
• Do chum kiu maybe 4 more times in its entirety, paying particular attention to the previously faulty moves.

I found doing it this very beneficial. I was able to both isolate and rectify techniques I was performing incorrectly by focusing so intently on them, but I was  also able to feel the corrected technique in the context of the whole form.

Chum Kiu Improvements

Going through the moves of chum kiu in sequence, here is a list of corrections and applications of techniques:

• After the double jum sau near the beginning of the form go straight into wan lan sau. Up to now, I’ve been pausing deliberately between these two movements, but the immediacy of the transition mimics the immediacy of going from jum sau to the next technique in a real situation.
• The practical application of the double jum sau is simply the single jum sau, for example to meet a straight punch. You would never do a double jum sau – this is just for practice! When doing the jum sau, it’s the fleshy part of your forearm that meets forearm of the incoming punch, though it acts like a pak sau.
• The double fak sau after the four wan lan sau turns is just for practice. In reality, again you would only do one fak sau.
• Further on, the turn into a single bar arm that is intended to ‘bounce’ the attacker – that needs work. My power is lacking in this area. Sifu advised us to just practise that move in isolation but with the bouncing arm relaxed and away from the body as it’s easier than doing it from a chambered hand.
• The application of this is to bounce someone off who has grabbed your arm.
• When stepping in a straight line, sigong has the front foot parallel to the rear foot (45 degrees) but tai-sigong has his front foot pointing forwards. I don’t think it really matters – just be consistent.
• The double bouncing low bong sau (what a mouthful!). I’m sure there must be a more concise name for this, but I don’t know it. Mine needs to be higher and the hands, wrist and forearm need to be completely straight, whereas at the moment I have the tendency to curl them in.
• The application of this can be found in regular chi sau, I think if someone is pushing into you. Relax and let it go a little, and then bounce them whilst stepping in.
• Changing from that double low bong sau to the double tok sau is just so you can start again – it has no application.
• After the eye strike near the end, the double jut sau can be used to break your attacker’s grip, for example if they’re holding your wrists. The subsequent push is to then disrupt their balance.
• The final turn before the left leg kick – make sure you are balanced before you kick!
• Next, when you turn from pak sau to pak sau, make the turns smooth and don’t bounce.
• The pak saus should feel similar to the yeung jeungs at the start of the second section in siu lim tau.

Wing Chun Footwork

I asked sifu when to use the straight step and when to use the c shaped step. The straight step is used for covering small distances whereas with the c-step you can cover greater distances. Using the c-step, you can also place your feet more appropriately in relation to your attacker’s feet. I know that that’s used in the Wing Chun dummy forms (or at least the one I know).

More practice!